8 Ways to Persuade Your Friend to Travel

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How to Get Your Friend to Travel

Are your friends resisting what you know would be an absolutely incredible gap year together? Giving out excuses like a drugs mule in a prison cell?

It’s time to pin them down and get that round the world ticket booked. No messing about any longer. Here are a few tried and tested ways to get them on board, for the best travel times ever.

1. Entice them with photos

You just need to show them the photos Steph Dyson took of Bolivia, Louise Denton captured of Darwin, or yours truly got from Cuba and those feet are sure to start itching.

Send them a link a day to open, and if you have access change their screensaver to a destination they’ve name dropped before. You could even Photoshop the two of you in there having a lovely time, just for a laugh.

It’s well-known that a picture paints a thousand works, and stimulates the feel-good serotonin in your brain, this could be the best chance you have.

2. Watch inspirational films

Why not make a night of it? Choose a film – The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, Lost in Translation, The Beach, et al – and get it on the big screen at home. I assume one of you has a projector? Maybe avoid Into the Wild, just for now.

3. Find their sweet spot

What is it about travelling that you think your mate will like the most? The beaches? The adventure activities? The girls? The boys? Hostel life? Whatever it is, exploit it. Share stories from this site, retell tales you’ve heard from your friends, just make them up if you need. As your best mate you’re in the prime position to know what will work best.

Once you’ve located that sweet spot you need to work on it until he/she breaks.

4. Stop going out

If you stand by your word that you’re not going out any more and you’re saving money, who will they go out with? If your best mate is citing cash flow as the main reason for not taking you up on the offer of the best gap year ever then show them how to save, how to earn and how you’re going to afford it. Show them it can be done, and it can be fun if you do it together.

5. Start talking hypothetically

Sometimes you gotta fake it to make it. The more you talk about what you could do, hypothetically, on your gap year, the more you’re likely to catch some traction.

You could start working your way through this article, on How to Plan a Trip to Burma from Scratch and just hypothetically talk about what you’d do if you were to travel South East Asia, or South America, for example.

Encourage them to give a list of where they’d go and what they’d do. Time it right and you can jump on the enthusiasm to your own ends.

6. Make them feel bad about you on your own

Articles like this one on female travel in India is sure to make them feel bad enough to come with you. “You wouldn’t want me getting scammed would you? And what about the dogs? They’ll eat me if you’re not there.”

7. Cook them up a treat

One of the best things about travelling is the opportunity to try so many different foods from around the world. One thing you could do to persuade your friend that joining you on a gap year is the best thing they’ll ever do, is to cook them up the cuisine of your planned destinations.

Not only is it a chance for you to practice your cooking skills, it’s also a good time to remind your mate that this is what life could be like if you travelled together. You could even charge them 50p to show them how well you can eat for crazy cheap around the world.

8. You need to show them the way

Some people don’t know what’s good for them. You need to show your mate that a gap year is a great idea, and that they’d be missing out if they decide to stay home to ‘work’, ‘go to uni’ or ‘be with their beloved’. Boring!